D2D Flower Gardens trip, Sept 2007, on the M/V SPREE
There were only 4 of us D2D types on board (three if you don't count Harm's husband), yet through some kind of secret vote, I was elected to do a trip report. Bear in mind you're dealing with an only semi-experienced diver, with an Auto-35 *film* (gasp! the horror!) camera, so you get what you didn't pay for. Here goes:
We gathered at the On the River restaurant across the street from the levee and the FLING and SPREE. I was grateful to get there at all--driving along I-10 from New Orleans was more like swimming, in torrental rains between Lafayette and Beaumont, meaning, most of the trip. I white-knuckled it through only because the taillights I was following in the white-out viz didn't themselves run off the highway, unlike quite a few who did.
The Flower Gardens has been my only liveaboard since I got certified 8 years ago, I try to go once a year, usually succeed, except when Katrina'd 2 years ago. It's not a hidden secret, but it's not your typical dive venue. About 90 miles offshore, straight south from the Tex/La border, it's where an otherwise 400' bottom, near the edge of the outer continental shelf, is interrupted by salt domes that have pushed the bottom upwards, to about 60-75' at shallowest (East and West Flower, and Stetson Bank), which are the ones we dive. These "islands", or hills really, are just far enough south to grow coral, so it's the "Texas Caribbean". Lots of fish out there, lots of life, a few big guys, and really good visibility. Also subject to weather blowouts, but not that often. The result is accessible, inexpensive, really good diving, if you like liveaboards and the open ocean. You can learn a lot more about it from the NOAA web site than from me, since these are National Marine Sanctuaries.
You wait for the boat, which got in about 3 hours before, to let you board. Bring, or borrow, bug spray for this gathering, but it's still fun, you meet old and new friends after dinner while the mosquitos get theirs. Capt Frank and mate/DM Melanie come out to greet you, then you're on board, grab a bunk and a dive deck seat, and sit in the galley for the informative (and funny, too) briefing. Then, hit the rack, in small but comfortable bunks while SPREE heads offshore all night. You wake up when you feel the rpms decrease about 0530. We're here! You can get a better trip report than I'm about to give from Frank himself, on the gulf-diving web site, which I've tried to link in, hope it works.
Anyway, you usually start out at West Flower, then East Flower, depending on buoys and weather. Both are similar, tho East is a touch shallower in the middle (but East has a buoy which puts you near a dropoff so you can get deep on one dive on East Flower). Once you start, it's "dive, eat, sleep" then repeat, until you've done 5 dives on Sat, 4 Sunday, and 2 Monday, including 1 or 2 platform dives if conditions allow the boat to tie up and hang away from the platform. We did two dives on West FGB, then shifted over to the East for the afternoon and evening (normally getting a platform dive on the way, but light but opposing current and wind scotched this).
I buddied with Greg, one of the trip leaders and a DM, and TXDM, who wasn't working on this trip, except he kept getting recruited. Nice dives on both flowers. the morning dive is the "windex dive" very blue indeed. I started out ragged, and underestimated how much air I'd use on the ascent and hangs in mid-level current, finally had to take buddy's reg to stretch things so I'd get aboard with enough air to avoid "dive jail". Later dives, I planned better and air usage improved from experience and some tips from Greg and Larry, and Melanie too; excellent wisdom, together they're "the Magi" to me.
Excellent meals, and the classic brownies and ice cream after the night dive. Most everyone sleeps real well the second night. Sunday, the morning dive off East Flower buoy 1 is a classic--you drop down the east edge of the bank, and the coral gets more "shelf-like" as you get deeper, and the low morning sun shines between the shelves. Watch your air if you have an AL80 like me, but you can get fairly deep (boat rule is 130' on first dive of day, 100' all other dives) and still get back if there's little current, which there wasn't. Then we started the shift to Stetson, but on the way we dived the High Island 572 platform, an inactive rig with lots of growth, so a good dive. My pix were poor, but no one photo can capture the majesty of diving inside one of these huge structures, with the fish, bubbles, and sunlight streaming through. Almost like a cathedral with the blue stained glass windows, on a Sunday.
Topside, a brand-new crewboat (big one, 4 shafts, only a week old) asked if we could help them cut away a BIG rope on the stbd shaft. The crew put in mighty effort, and got some of it off, but not all in the end, though it may have come off later on its own since we hacked it up so much. Fun part: we had a diver, Callie, who had a birthday. Alongside comes the crewboat, the "Miss Callie P", once we could read the name. "Happy birthday, Callie! Look what we brought you!" The CALLIE crew played along and she swam over and climbed up for the royal tour of "her birthday boat". You never know what's going to happen out in the Gulf.
Stetson is the absolute bomb, a unique place. Just far enough north of the Flowers to not grow coral, it's more of a pinnacle than they are, and you can see how the sedimentary soil layers have been pushed up vertical and eroded btwn layers, leaving ridges that look like a stegassuraus' back. There are great pinnacles, like prehistoric mountains, and a really good wall dropoff too. At night, it's like landing on the Moon. Larry and I were first in, and on our way out to the pinnacles and the wall, came directly over a big hawksbill turtle, and on the way back in, a southern manta ray. Very cool, both of them. The morning dives at Stetson were sunny and relaxing, a wonderful end to the diving.
Then about 6 hours steaming back home, while catching up on sleep or watching a flick. No huge critters, no whale sharks, but some silky sharks--one followed me while I was swimming btwn dives, and the DM swimming with me said my toes almost looked like lunch to the shark. I'm grateful for the "almost" part, since I didn't know about it til she pointed, and I looked back.
The Spree is much more comfortable since the last renovation, with fewer divers, hence much more dive deck space, new rinse tanks (didn't have to wash my gear at home for the first time ever), more elec outlets, a new "wet" deck head and shower, what a difference that makes. Only thing I missed was the good stargazing, as it was mostly cloudy, but enjoyed swimming after the dives, for some light exercise, and watching the "human rebreathers" coming up from their long dives way after I'm done, maybe I can pick up some pointers watching them from above.
Well, that's about it, kids. I don't dive that much, so these infrequent trips are a big deal for me. This place was my first rookie "real" diving, and I've never lost my sense of awe and enjoyment of the place. The boat's always been fun, the food good, but both are even better now. So if you missed this trip, don't miss the next one. And if you haven't been, you really should. The "Texas caribbean" is well worth visiting. My photos aren't good, so look at the linked sites for some really good ones, and a good trip report, in the links. Go to the www.gulf-diving.com one, and then click on photos, and also the "Flower Garden Banks NMS" link, to learn more, and see more.
There were only 4 of us D2D types on board (three if you don't count Harm's husband), yet through some kind of secret vote, I was elected to do a trip report. Bear in mind you're dealing with an only semi-experienced diver, with an Auto-35 *film* (gasp! the horror!) camera, so you get what you didn't pay for. Here goes:
We gathered at the On the River restaurant across the street from the levee and the FLING and SPREE. I was grateful to get there at all--driving along I-10 from New Orleans was more like swimming, in torrental rains between Lafayette and Beaumont, meaning, most of the trip. I white-knuckled it through only because the taillights I was following in the white-out viz didn't themselves run off the highway, unlike quite a few who did.
The Flower Gardens has been my only liveaboard since I got certified 8 years ago, I try to go once a year, usually succeed, except when Katrina'd 2 years ago. It's not a hidden secret, but it's not your typical dive venue. About 90 miles offshore, straight south from the Tex/La border, it's where an otherwise 400' bottom, near the edge of the outer continental shelf, is interrupted by salt domes that have pushed the bottom upwards, to about 60-75' at shallowest (East and West Flower, and Stetson Bank), which are the ones we dive. These "islands", or hills really, are just far enough south to grow coral, so it's the "Texas Caribbean". Lots of fish out there, lots of life, a few big guys, and really good visibility. Also subject to weather blowouts, but not that often. The result is accessible, inexpensive, really good diving, if you like liveaboards and the open ocean. You can learn a lot more about it from the NOAA web site than from me, since these are National Marine Sanctuaries.
You wait for the boat, which got in about 3 hours before, to let you board. Bring, or borrow, bug spray for this gathering, but it's still fun, you meet old and new friends after dinner while the mosquitos get theirs. Capt Frank and mate/DM Melanie come out to greet you, then you're on board, grab a bunk and a dive deck seat, and sit in the galley for the informative (and funny, too) briefing. Then, hit the rack, in small but comfortable bunks while SPREE heads offshore all night. You wake up when you feel the rpms decrease about 0530. We're here! You can get a better trip report than I'm about to give from Frank himself, on the gulf-diving web site, which I've tried to link in, hope it works.
Anyway, you usually start out at West Flower, then East Flower, depending on buoys and weather. Both are similar, tho East is a touch shallower in the middle (but East has a buoy which puts you near a dropoff so you can get deep on one dive on East Flower). Once you start, it's "dive, eat, sleep" then repeat, until you've done 5 dives on Sat, 4 Sunday, and 2 Monday, including 1 or 2 platform dives if conditions allow the boat to tie up and hang away from the platform. We did two dives on West FGB, then shifted over to the East for the afternoon and evening (normally getting a platform dive on the way, but light but opposing current and wind scotched this).
I buddied with Greg, one of the trip leaders and a DM, and TXDM, who wasn't working on this trip, except he kept getting recruited. Nice dives on both flowers. the morning dive is the "windex dive" very blue indeed. I started out ragged, and underestimated how much air I'd use on the ascent and hangs in mid-level current, finally had to take buddy's reg to stretch things so I'd get aboard with enough air to avoid "dive jail". Later dives, I planned better and air usage improved from experience and some tips from Greg and Larry, and Melanie too; excellent wisdom, together they're "the Magi" to me.
Excellent meals, and the classic brownies and ice cream after the night dive. Most everyone sleeps real well the second night. Sunday, the morning dive off East Flower buoy 1 is a classic--you drop down the east edge of the bank, and the coral gets more "shelf-like" as you get deeper, and the low morning sun shines between the shelves. Watch your air if you have an AL80 like me, but you can get fairly deep (boat rule is 130' on first dive of day, 100' all other dives) and still get back if there's little current, which there wasn't. Then we started the shift to Stetson, but on the way we dived the High Island 572 platform, an inactive rig with lots of growth, so a good dive. My pix were poor, but no one photo can capture the majesty of diving inside one of these huge structures, with the fish, bubbles, and sunlight streaming through. Almost like a cathedral with the blue stained glass windows, on a Sunday.
Topside, a brand-new crewboat (big one, 4 shafts, only a week old) asked if we could help them cut away a BIG rope on the stbd shaft. The crew put in mighty effort, and got some of it off, but not all in the end, though it may have come off later on its own since we hacked it up so much. Fun part: we had a diver, Callie, who had a birthday. Alongside comes the crewboat, the "Miss Callie P", once we could read the name. "Happy birthday, Callie! Look what we brought you!" The CALLIE crew played along and she swam over and climbed up for the royal tour of "her birthday boat". You never know what's going to happen out in the Gulf.
Stetson is the absolute bomb, a unique place. Just far enough north of the Flowers to not grow coral, it's more of a pinnacle than they are, and you can see how the sedimentary soil layers have been pushed up vertical and eroded btwn layers, leaving ridges that look like a stegassuraus' back. There are great pinnacles, like prehistoric mountains, and a really good wall dropoff too. At night, it's like landing on the Moon. Larry and I were first in, and on our way out to the pinnacles and the wall, came directly over a big hawksbill turtle, and on the way back in, a southern manta ray. Very cool, both of them. The morning dives at Stetson were sunny and relaxing, a wonderful end to the diving.
Then about 6 hours steaming back home, while catching up on sleep or watching a flick. No huge critters, no whale sharks, but some silky sharks--one followed me while I was swimming btwn dives, and the DM swimming with me said my toes almost looked like lunch to the shark. I'm grateful for the "almost" part, since I didn't know about it til she pointed, and I looked back.
The Spree is much more comfortable since the last renovation, with fewer divers, hence much more dive deck space, new rinse tanks (didn't have to wash my gear at home for the first time ever), more elec outlets, a new "wet" deck head and shower, what a difference that makes. Only thing I missed was the good stargazing, as it was mostly cloudy, but enjoyed swimming after the dives, for some light exercise, and watching the "human rebreathers" coming up from their long dives way after I'm done, maybe I can pick up some pointers watching them from above.
Well, that's about it, kids. I don't dive that much, so these infrequent trips are a big deal for me. This place was my first rookie "real" diving, and I've never lost my sense of awe and enjoyment of the place. The boat's always been fun, the food good, but both are even better now. So if you missed this trip, don't miss the next one. And if you haven't been, you really should. The "Texas caribbean" is well worth visiting. My photos aren't good, so look at the linked sites for some really good ones, and a good trip report, in the links. Go to the www.gulf-diving.com one, and then click on photos, and also the "Flower Garden Banks NMS" link, to learn more, and see more.
